Worth buying a refurbished laptop

OP

Thank you. They do look to good to be true.

Original post by Napp

Whilst theres nothing wrong with refurbished laptops i wouldnt touch them with a barge-pole if they dont come with a warranty.

Thank you. The warranty was an issue for me as they're only 30 day returns.

Reply 3

username5383500

18

Original post by Seretonin

Is it worth it buying a refurbished laptop for £450 when is usually 650 but it could have scratches but it's in full working condition. Its on ebay and sold by laptops direct so it's legit. Also their would be no warranty. Is it better to buy from curries or actual website that have warranty?

As above, previous replies covered the main issue.

Refurbished can mean many things. It could mean manufacturer refurbished where you'll get a decent warranty and the repair is done professionally. It could mean some reseller on eBay refurbished the laptop, and you have no idea how competent they are. In this case, it's a fairly reputable reseller (rather than some random) but for some reason they are not offering a warranty. That's a huge red flag.

Of course the irony here is that if you purchased new, odds are you won't need that warranty. And buying used/refurbished is when you're most likely to need a warranty that isn't being offered. Although there are arguments for buying used or refurbished, I generally recommend people don't bother if they have the budget to buy new. Because the vast majority of people don't want to deal with things like battery replacements, RAM upgrades, SSD upgrades, etc. And nobody really wants a used laptop that's scratched, has an oily keyboard, etc. At the end of the day, you get what you pay for and £450 with no warranty could be an expensive risk.

For what it's worth, if the laptop were originally £650 it may well not be what you're looking for in the first place. Everyday student laptops tend to come in between £500-600. A £200 discount sounds great, but if it's £200 you don't need to spend in the first place you're not getting anything out of it. This laptop I recommended the other day comes in at £485 brand new, and I'm willing to bet it's fairly similar to the one you've found that was originally £650.

Reply 4

TheRealSaifali

i found an excellent refurbished laptop for £295 the specs were great could run almost any game at low-medium settings & was being sold for much higher.

Reply 5

FRS500

20

Personally I don't touch refurb or second hand electronics at all. No matter what.

So many things can go wrong especially when they want to weasel out of giving a warranty.

Reply 6

OP

Original post by AcseI

As above, previous replies covered the main issue.

Refurbished can mean many things. It could mean manufacturer refurbished where you'll get a decent warranty and the repair is done professionally. It could mean some reseller on eBay refurbished the laptop, and you have no idea how competent they are. In this case, it's a fairly reputable reseller (rather than some random) but for some reason they are not offering a warranty. That's a huge red flag.

Of course the irony here is that if you purchased new, odds are you won't need that warranty. And buying used/refurbished is when you're most likely to need a warranty that isn't being offered. Although there are arguments for buying used or refurbished, I generally recommend people don't bother if they have the budget to buy new. Because the vast majority of people don't want to deal with things like battery replacements, RAM upgrades, SSD upgrades, etc. And nobody really wants a used laptop that's scratched, has an oily keyboard, etc. At the end of the day, you get what you pay for and £450 with no warranty could be an expensive risk.

For what it's worth, if the laptop were originally £650 it may well not be what you're looking for in the first place. Everyday student laptops tend to come in between £500-600. A £200 discount sounds great, but if it's £200 you don't need to spend in the first place you're not getting anything out of it. This laptop I recommended the other day comes in at £485 brand new, and I'm willing to bet it's fairly similar to the one you've found that was originally £650.

Thank you. It doesn't let me rep you for some reason. The laptop was a lenovo idea pad s540. It's out of stock now anyways.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402442963209
The dell looks like a good deal but it's too big for me to carry around everyday.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 7

OP

Original post by Seretonin

Thank you. It doesn't let me rep you for some reason. The laptop was a lenovo idea pad s540. It's out of stock now anyways.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402442963209
The dell looks like a good deal but it's too big for me to carry around everyday.

I just looked again their was a 6 month warranty I should've bought it.

Reply 8

Dunnig Kruger

Original post by Seretonin

I just looked again their was a 6 month warranty I should've bought it.

You probably should have.

I personally would be looking at more of a discount on a used laptop than £650 down to £450.

Over £1000 to £200 ish is more my kind of deal.

What will you be using the laptop for?
This is by far the most important question in getting an optimum laptop for you.

If all you will be using it for is MS Office or Libre Office, with simple spreadsheets, a lot of assignment typing and email, and web browsing, including youtube and movie watching, plus video conferencing, then all you need is a laptop with an FHD (1920 resolution) screen . From there all you need to do is fit an SSD hard drive if it doesn't have one already.

Such a laptop, eg a Dell Latitude E7470 can be had for £230 ish from well knows used online market places.

Buying new laptops is a mugs game. Use depreciation to get yourself a great deal.

As for refurbished. That could mean anything. It's a vague term.
Usually all it means is that they've removed any stickers and wiped it over externally with furniture polish and run basic built in diagnostics.

Don't pay extra for a laptop because it has been "refurbished" as opposed to just used and resold.

Look for things like the state of the keyboard. Do the keys, especially the spacebar look worn / have shiney patches. That's an indication of more use than a laptop with pristine looking keys.
It's worth being a bit picky and choosey in terms of how tired the keyboard looks when buying used.
A lot of corporate laptops spend their entire corporate lives sat in a docking station. That's the sort of used laptop that you want.

Warranties are relatively unimportant with laptops. They are reliable items.
On a £400 laptop I'd be willing to pay a maximum of £20 for 12 months warranty as opposed to 0 warranty.
That's because if I bought 100 used premium business laptops I'd get a warranty type fault in the first year on 0 to 4 of them.
I love gambling when the odds are stacked in my favour.
It's up to you if you want to take a similar gamble when the odds are stacked in your favour. Logical people do. Risk averse people won't take such a risk.

If you really are risk averse you could look out for a used laptop that came with 36 months warranty and is less than 24 months old. Thereby giving you 13 months or more warranty.

Overall, buy the right sort of laptop for your needs. Buy used. At the right price. Make this a head over heart decision. A laptop is a tool.
Too many people treat laptops as a status symbol.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 9

OP

Are laptops from curries refurbished good they have a 1 year guarantee @AcseI

Reply 10

999tigger

19

Original post by Seretonin

Is it worth it buying a refurbished laptop for £450 when is usually 650 but it could have scratches but it's in full working condition. Its on ebay and sold by laptops direct so it's legit. Also their would be no warranty. Is it better to buy from curries or actual website that have warranty?

Depends, but I would more likely take the plunge and just buy second hand from ebay and do the research so I knew what I was looking for.

Also decent deals from dell outlet + student discount.

Reply 11

Gundabad(good)

20

Original post by Seretonin

Is it worth it buying a refurbished laptop for £450 when is usually 650 but it could have scratches but it's in full working condition. Its on ebay and sold by laptops direct so it's legit. Also their would be no warranty. Is it better to buy from curries or actual website that have warranty?

It's very risky buying a refurb on eBay. You're better off looking for deals on hotukdeals.

Reply 12

Kerzen

17

Original post by Seretonin

Is it worth it buying a refurbished laptop for £450 when is usually 650 but it could have scratches but it's in full working condition. Its on ebay and sold by laptops direct so it's legit. Also their would be no warranty. Is it better to buy from curries or actual website that have warranty?

Have a look at the ones John Lewis have, they are good with warranties.

https://www.johnlewis.com/browse/electricals/laptops-macbooks/view-all-laptops-macbooks/_/N-a8f?sortBy=priceLow

Reply 13

Dunnig Kruger

Original post by Seretonin

Are laptops from curries refurbished good they have a 1 year guarantee @AcseI @Gofre

Don't buy from Curries. Don't buy from John Lewis.

They have huge overheads in the cost of running all those stores with all the staff they have in them.

This is reflected in the prices.

Only buy from Curries if it's a mega emergency and you absolutely must have something the same day.

Also, as as further tip, as a student you will be more productive and have a better computing experience if you have good peripherals. A good monitor, mouse and keyboard and desk and chair. At least in your home office.
Good IT peripherals is something that really deserves its own thread.

Reply 14

username5383500

18

Original post by Seretonin

Thank you. It doesn't let me rep you for some reason. The laptop was a lenovo idea pad s540. It's out of stock now anyways.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402442963209
The dell looks like a good deal but it's too big for me to carry around everyday.

Most likely you've repped me recently. I wouldn't worry too much, you've not really missed out. I'd never pay £650 for that laptop, and brand new laptops with equivalent specs can be had for less than £650. It wasn't really a big discount, especially considering it's got slightly older hardware and is actually kind of heavy for a 14 inch laptop.

Is the Dell really too big? Weight wise, it's only an extra 100 grams or so. And the extra inch of so in screen size isn't going to make a drastic difference in size. In fact I've just looked at the exact specs of both, the Lenovo is 323x227mm and the Dell is 356x234mm. So despite the larger 15.6 inch screen, the Dell is only an extra 3cm wide and 1.5cm deep. IMO that's not something you'd even notice, and is probably worth it for the slightly larger screen anyway. If you thought the Lenovo would be a suitable size and weight, then the Dell is almost completely identical in size, is brand new, has newer hardware, will come with a real warranty and you're only paying £35 to not have to deal with refurbished hardware.

Original post by Seretonin

Are laptops from curries refurbished good they have a 1 year guarantee @AcseI @Gofre

Depends what you define as good. Like any laptop, whether it's good will come down to specs, price, if it does what you want, etc. If for some reason you were dead set on buying a refurbished laptop instead of brand new then yes, I'd rather go to Curry's than get some random laptop off eBay. You'd also have a bunch of other good options, for example Dell Outlet to get refub models from Dell directly. Really the guarantee is a bare minimum I'd expect, but it doesn't make them stand out in any way. It still ultimately comes down to the laptop itself.

Reply 15

OP

Original post by AcseI

Most likely you've repped me recently. I wouldn't worry too much, you've not really missed out. I'd never pay £650 for that laptop, and brand new laptops with equivalent specs can be had for less than £650. It wasn't really a big discount, especially considering it's got slightly older hardware and is actually kind of heavy for a 14 inch laptop.

Is the Dell really too big? Weight wise, it's only an extra 100 grams or so. And the extra inch of so in screen size isn't going to make a drastic difference in size. In fact I've just looked at the exact specs of both, the Lenovo is 323x227mm and the Dell is 356x234mm. So despite the larger 15.6 inch screen, the Dell is only an extra 3cm wide and 1.5cm deep. IMO that's not something you'd even notice, and is probably worth it for the slightly larger screen anyway. If you thought the Lenovo would be a suitable size and weight, then the Dell is almost completely identical in size, is brand new, has newer hardware, will come with a real warranty and you're only paying £35 to not have to deal with refurbished hardware.

Depends what you define as good. Like any laptop, whether it's good will come down to specs, price, if it does what you want, etc. If for some reason you were dead set on buying a refurbished laptop instead of brand new then yes, I'd rather go to Curry's than get some random laptop off eBay. You'd also have a bunch of other good options, for example Dell Outlet to get refub models from Dell directly. Really the guarantee is a bare minimum I'd expect, but it doesn't make them stand out in any way. It still ultimately comes down to the laptop itself.

I'll reply properly in a bit but can you tell me if this is worth it please.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353145998708

Reply 16

username5383500

18

Original post by Seretonin

I'll reply properly in a bit but can you tell me if this is worth it please.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353145998708

It's an all round solid laptop in terms of specs and price. The refurb grade is B, which isn't exactly descriptive for what condition it will come in. Most likely it'll be in a used condition, so some scratches and maybe oily keys. Given that it's relatively new hardware, I'd wager it's not actually been used much and developed a fault early on. That wouldn't fill me with confidence (the latest hardware being sold at significant discounts should always send alarm bells ringing) but assuming it does definitely come with a years warranty you'll be covered.

My personal preference would still be to buy the Dell I linked, but that's because I'd value the item being brand new and the larger display over the extra storage and refurb discount. But at the end of the day there's no right answer and it's totally up to you. If you like it, go for it.

Reply 17

OP

Original post by AcseI

It's an all round solid laptop in terms of specs and price. The refurb grade is B, which isn't exactly descriptive for what condition it will come in. Most likely it'll be in a used condition, so some scratches and maybe oily keys. Given that it's relatively new hardware, I'd wager it's not actually been used much and developed a fault early on. That wouldn't fill me with confidence (the latest hardware being sold at significant discounts should always send alarm bells ringing) but assuming it does definitely come with a years warranty you'll be covered.

My personal preference would still be to buy the Dell I linked, but that's because I'd value the item being brand new and the larger display over the extra storage and refurb discount. But at the end of the day there's no right answer and it's totally up to you. If you like it, go for it.

I don't know if it's the actual currys. Because when I click on the guarantee It takes you to Currys outlet store and this is Currys clearance so?

Reply 18

SMEGGGY

21

You can buy a new one for that mate

Reply 19

Dunnig Kruger